Metro digest

LOCAL

Akron man accused of fleeing police enters plea

WARREN — Marcel Tipton, 23, of Akron pleaded innocent in Warren Municipal Court to two felony charges Friday after he was released from Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital for injuries he suffered in a motorcycle accident.

Bond was set at $10,000 on charges of failure to comply with the orders of a police officer and receiving stolen property. If convicted, he could spend more than seven years in prison.

Police said he fled from police on a stolen motorcycle from Hamilton Street Southwest and wrecked it on Palmyra Road in Warren Township at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Tipton also pleaded innocent to having no driver’s license and failure to control, misdemeanors.

ohio

High court: No hearing for death-row inmate

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected a death-row inmate’s request to present more evidence he says could have changed the outcome of his trial.

Romell Broom, 53, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday for the rape and stabbing death of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton in Cleveland in 1984.

The high court rejected on Friday a lower court’s ruling that would have allowed a hearing to consider whether investigators shielded records. Among the evidence Broom says the state failed to disclose is that Middleton and two witnesses used illegal drugs and had a habit of lying.

Prosecutors say a federal judge has already ruled that the evidence would not have made a difference at trial.

Governor: Handle runaway convert case in Ohio

COLUMBUS — Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland says the case of a Muslim girl who ran away to Florida after converting to Christianity should by handled by Ohio authorities.

Strickland spokeswoman Amanda Wurst said Friday that the state has no reason to believe that Rifqa Bary would be unsafe in Ohio.

Wurst says Strickland believes the case belongs in Ohio because it is a family matter that can be handled by the state’s child welfare and foster-care system.

A Florida judge is deciding whether the 17-year-old girl, currently in foster care in Florida, should be returned to Ohio.

The girl ran away from her parents’ suburban Columbus home in July, saying she feared being killed for changing religions.

An investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found no evidence to support the girl’s claim.

PENNSYLVANIA

ACLU sues Pittsburgh over G-20 protest permits

PITTSBURGH — The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Pittsburgh in federal court, claiming the city is violating the civil rights of people who want to protest the Group of 20 summit.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit on Friday on behalf of six groups who say the city has failed to issue them protest permits.

The leaders of 19 countries and representatives of the European Union will meet in Pittsburgh Sept. 24-25 to discuss the global economic crisis. Thousands of protesters follow these summits, opposing policies they feel are harm everything from the environment to the poor.

City officials were not immediately available to comment. The city announced Thursday it was leasing a parking lot near the convention center for the protesters’ use.

Schools’ pension fund discloses big losses

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s school employees pension fund lost nearly 27 percent on its investments in the year that ended June 30.

The Public School Employees’ Retirement System said Friday that the losses would have been worse, but it earned more than 9 percent in the final three months of the period.

It’s responding to the national economic downturn by reducing the portion of its money that’s invested in global equities and increasing its proportion of cash on hand.

Staff/wire reports